Overrated/Underrated: Twin Peaks Edition

Is The New Twin Peaks Good? Is The Old Twin Peaks? Who Knows? Do We? Do You?

During the month of May, Twin Peaks returned after a 26-year absence (five of the 18 episodes have aired so far). It wasn’t uncommon to hear people who were new to Twin Peaks ask some valid yet unanswerable questions: What’s Twin Peaks about? Should I watch the new Twin Peaks? What’s so good about Twin Peaks? In this month’s Overrated/Underrated we offer a skerrick of insight, though the only thing we can say for certain is your relationship with the new Twin Peaks will be entirely contingent on your stance on David Lynch.

OVERRATED: DAVID LYNCH

David Lynch is a polarising genius with cool hair who talks kinda funny and really likes smoking. He’s made none of your favourite movies, and the movies of his that you have seen were… difficult. He’s one of those people whose work you can admire (sorta) but will never enjoy or understand, because what’s to like about stilted performances and multidimensional nightmares?

UNDERRATED: DAVID LYNCH

David Lynch is a polarising genius with cool hair who talks kinda funny and really likes smoking. He’s made some of your favourite movies and you relish the opportunity to yield to his work; enjoyment and understanding take a backseat to how he makes you feel.

OVERRATED: SHOWS ABOUT SOMETHING

As with Seinfeld, Twin Peaks is a show about nothing – and that’s fine; perhaps we need more TV that elevates the mundane into entertainment. IMDb describes the original series thusly: “An idiosyncratic FBI agent investigates the murder of a young woman in the even more idiosyncratic town of Twin Peaks.” What began as an avant-garde procedural soon became defined by and celebrated for its idiosyncratic curios – backwards-speak, talking timber, doppelgängers, an obsession with coffee and pastries, and a soap opera within the show’s own melodrama, to name a few.

UNDERRATED: AMBIENCE

In addition to directing the entire 2017 series, which Lynch himself described as an 18-hour movie, the director was also heavily involved in the editing and sound design. This new stuff bristles with the moody mindf–kery that only one man is capable of pulling off without it seeming like a misguided ARTEXPRESS submission. The soundtrack is distorted industrial. Ominous lingering shots dare you to keep watching… then nothing happens. Scenes undergo seismic shifts without warning: comedy turns to violence and sex turns to horror. You can’t predict Twin Peaks and it’s seldom clear what’s happening (or which reality you’re in) yet somehow you’ll be beguiled enough to tolerate a 10-minute, near-silent sequence featuring an eyeless lady and an electrified tree set mostly in outer space.

OVERRATED: THE WRITER’S MEDIUM

The strength of virtually every acclaimed contemporary series lies in the script: the story comes first. But what if it didn’t? What if you could bait people by introducing a murder mystery, then switch the focus to atmospherics and idiosyncrasies? True enough, solving the Laura Palmer case propelled the show forward in its 1990-91 run, but the beauty of Twin Peaks was always the extracurricular stuff. This is also a trademark of late period Lynch: just when you think you’ve got a grasp on the narrative, someone falls into a portal and you’re plunged into the vivid purgatory between entertainment and eeriness.

UNDERRATED: THE DIRECTOR’S MEDIUM

To fans, the 2017 iteration of Twin Peaks is David Lynch’s The Life of Pablo: he’s corralled all his favourite creative collaborators to give audiences an 18-hour buffet of his bizarrest hits. It’s simultaneously messy and muddled and masterful, and not for a moment does it seem like he’s not in control or it’s not all part of his vision. For non-fans, watching Twin Peaks is like diving into a subreddit on a topic that sounds interesting but which you also know nothing about – it’s heady and confusing but at the very least you’ll leave with some unique ideas in your head… or, y’know, just feel completely trolled.